Telum sorry to hear about the accident. Likewise as 4pipes mentioned, when I was looking for my DBS I would not look at any car with paint work or accident history.
I really think though it depends on what car the buyer is looking at. If it is an expensive exotic, then likely exotic buyers want a perfect car.
If I were looking at a Lotus, I really wouldn't care what damage was done as long as it weren't structural.
The Vantage is somewhere in the middle - problem is that there are so many Vantages for sale that many buyers may pass for a clean car. Best of luck

 

Just another car guy wishing you the best... If its still a clean title.. (not salvage) at least you have that going for you. A bank will lend money on the car... If you have pictures of the damage then its probably easy to explain to a new owner... I'd still look at a 6+yr old car with a new hood/grill.. especially if the seller was very up front. Things happen.

I am suprised if you will not spend more on the lawyer than the ~$5-10k you are trying to claim from the insurance co. Unless he/she is a personal friend.

The insurance laws are not stacked in 'our' favor IMO from all the dealings I have been involved with. Very best of luck.

(PS .. if you are looking to actually sell the car... PM me.)

 

Georgia has a state law saying that the insurer of the at-fault driver has to pay for the diminished value of a car that results from an accident that they cause. i had an independent expert evaluate it, and he said $7550. individuals are saying $5-10k. dealerships are saying $10-15k. the insurance company offered me less than $1800.

my lawyer is being paid a percentage over a certain amount awarded, so i'll still get something out of this regardless of what he gets paid.

but there's another law that pertains to bad faith in paying this out. if this goes to court (which it is) and i get awarded as much as i asked for or more, then the insurance company has to pay me a penalty of 50% of the amount i was awarded in the lawsuit or $5000 (whichever is greater), plus cover my legal fees.

Rolex - i'm not planning to but i'll keep that in mind! i do have a rather quick STi for sale for pretty cheap, though...

 

From someone who currently is actively looking for an AM, I would not even go look at a car that had any accident history on the CarFax or Accucheck. Trouble with today's reporting requirements and transparancies it is hard not to get items reported, even for cash payments. I think all shops, reputable ones anyway are bound by law to post the activities. Heck, I see reports all the time with oil changes and services on them. I am sure they would post most other visits. I am not an expert in these matters but I do know some good dealers, and they have to post everything.

 

You may have enough of these already, but just in case not, a $10K discount for a car with damage history would probably not be enough to sway me away from buying a car with a perfect record. Even with a discount, I wouldn’t buy because I’d worry about what the full extent of the damage was.

If frame damage, no price is a big enough discount.

That being said, this could be any of us, and I'm sorry it happened to you. I have the pleasure of working with insurance companies regularly, and I hope you are well compensated for their lowballing you. Good Luck!

 

You may be asking the wrong audience here as a car with a damage history is going to attract a different kind of buyer than the one I would expect is an avid poster to a forum like this.

When I was shopping around I was considering a car that had a $30k front end repair (with no airbag deployment) at around 5k miles, repaired at an Aston dealership (full documentation) and was being sold with 25k miles on the odo and no service problems since. I looked through the repair details, looked to me like the dealership had really gouged the incurance comapny on the repair but at least that meant it hadbeen overdone.

At the time I was thinking of holding on to the car for a long time so resale value was not a super high priority. I did want the price to reflect the history however so I was looking for some around a 15-20% discount off the retail price. The dealer wouldn't budge far enough however so the negotiations stalled and the car I ended up buying came on the market (at the high end of my price range) so I never looked back.

It did sell eventually I believe but I have no idea for how much, but hopefully that number will give you a ballpark of what someone interested in the car might be willing to pay in the right circumstances. That said, I never committed to that deal and certainly had all the reservations expressed in the thread about it so I can't say 100% that I would have bought the car if it had been offered for the price I was looking for.

 

for anyone that was curious about how this would go...

the judge awarded me *more* than i sued for. taking out legal fees, i still came out a couple hundred bucks above what i originally demanded from the insurance companies.

thanks for all the input from everyone!

 

Well done!

 

Good to see you came out ok. To answer your original question. Based on the damage you stated, if I were buying a car as such, I'd want at least 10k off of market. 5k would not be enough for me. But, this is just MHO.

 

I live in az and there are law firms that specialize in diminished value.